


Welcome to Our Century

by Sparky_Young_Upstart



Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Angst, Comedy, Gen, I don't even know that meme, Man Out of Time, post-"Knight after Knights"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4796408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparky_Young_Upstart/pseuds/Sparky_Young_Upstart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>YOU SEE IVAN, WHEN ESCAPE FROM ALIEN CAT, YOU MUST LEARN ABOUT 21ST CENTURY FOR FEAR OF LOOKING DUMB</p><p>Or, the Dino Charge team teaches Ivan about dinosaurs, phones, restaurants, gyms, and motorcycles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This is a Dinosaur

Eight hundred years was a long time, even though Ivan was only partially aware of the time passing while trapped inside Fury. He had noticed small things - the changes in language, the various tales of motley heroes fighting against evil and the alien’s battles against those who would become the knight’s new team. But the grander elements of the world’s development had escaped him. So when he emerged from his prison, he was quite out of sorts.

Shelby found him wandering the museum one morning before opening. Fittingly, he had spent some time gazing upon the Pterosaur skeletons. She approached him and stood beside him. “Isn’t it cool?” she asked him.

The query shook Ivan from his thoughts. “Hmm? Oh, yes. Very...’cool’”. He frowned. “Though so odd. I trust that the sciences have advanced significantly since my time, but that only makes them more difficult to grasp. In my age we though dragons were still being hunted beyond our borders, yet this engraving states that they perished millions of years ago.” He shuddered. “Even that number would be called heresy back then.”

Shelby nodded. “Dinosuars, not dragons. And yeah, I guess your right. The last thing you probably heard was from Pliny the Elder or Ibn Sina. Most of the hard sciences were still centuries off.” She chuckled. “Though I guess science can’t be that hard considering everything we can do with our ranger powers.” She paused. “We’re basically wizards.”

“It does seem quite magical, indeed.” Ivan smiled with her. “Our compatriots tell me that you are quite learned in the study of these dinosaurs.” He pronounced the word ‘learned’ with two syllables. “Heh. ‘Terrible Lizards’. An apt name.” He gestured to the skeletons before him. “These pterodactyls - I know only the name because the Energem bestowed it into my mind. What else can you inform me of them?”

Shelby nodded. “Well, they’re actually part of a larger family called pterosaurs - like how a lion is a cat, but not all cats are lions. Pterodactyl was fairly small in comparison to the others. The largest was Quetzalcoatlus, which was as tall as a giraffe.”

Ivan nodded, then paused. “Um. What is a giraffe? Is it another dinosaur?”

Shelby giggled. “Oh, right. I guess you guys called it camelopard back in your day.” Ivan’s face lit up with recognition, and that just caused Shelby to beam brighter. “Wow, this is gonna be fun. Okay, come with me this way.” She grabbed his arm and began dragging him to another part of the museum.

“Where art we going, milady?” he asked as they raced along.

“If I’m gonna teach you about dinosaurs, we’re starting with _my_ favourite.”


	2. This is a Phone

Tyler held the small rectangle up to Ivan’s face. He didn’t hand it to him - he still remembered what happened when Koda attacked Shelby’s phone - but he made sure that the knight could see all the bits and pieces. Ivan gazed at it and frowned.

“’tis not but a blackened mirror,” he replied without enthusiasm. Tyler looked at the phone and mentally cursed.

“Whoops, I let it fall asleep.” He hit the button, then held it again. Ivan gasped at the display that appeared before him and immediately snatched it from the other boy’s grasp.

“God’s wounds! What manner of sorcery is this?” He pressed the button repeatedly, causing the screen to flash in and out of darkness. “A simple press of a button and you can display such art! Though, admittedly, the meaning is lost on me.”

Tyler took the phone back. “It’s not art. It’s...well, it’s a lot of things. It’s kind of like...an artificial servant.” He grimaced, unsure if even that was clear enough to the temporally displaced ranger. But Ivan seemed to follow. “These icons represent tasks that it can perform.” He pressed one. “This let’s it call other people for you.”

Ivan nodded. “In what manner does it hail them? Trumpet? Drums?”

“I...hmm. Let’s just call Chase.” Tyler made sure Ivan saw him press the contact list, then scrolled to find Chase’s name and called him.

“Hello?” came his voice from inside the phone.

“Hey, Chase, this is Tyler and -”

“Sir Chase!” Ivan shouted, and grabbed the phone again. Tyler made a mental note to explain to the knight proper personal space etiquette. “How have you become entrapped within the tiny box!” Ivan continued. He held the phone aloft and shook it, to no avail. “Release him! Release him!” Chase could only laugh from the other end of the line, which didn’t help things. “His imprisonment has driven him mad!” Ivan was about to smash the phone against the ground before Tyler intervened.

“O-kay!” he shouted as he grabbed it away. “Let’s not get carried away.” After catching his breath, he went on. “Chase is fine. The phone sent our voices to his phone through a...portal, and Chase has a phone that sends his voice back to us.”

“So...he is unharmed?” Ivan asked carefully. Tyler nodded, but groaned internally. How come Shelby got to give the easy lesson?


	3. This is a Restaurant

Ivan uneasily picked at the Dino Bite apron draped over his neck. “Lady Morgan, I do believe there has been a misunderstanding. I am a knight of the Power, not a mere servant.”

Kendall responded by plonking the green cap on his head, completing the uniform. “Look Ivan, the other rangers say that if they have to work here as cover then so do you, and frankly I agree. You’re suspicious enough as it is while you’re still learning about our time. If you hang around the museum every day without a good reason then people are going to get suspicious.”

Ivan smirked. “If it is discreteness you desire, milady, then you have no reason to fear. I was once known as Sir Ivan the Shadow, for I went on many quests to secretly investigate the enemies of the kingdom, and liberate milk and cookies from the mess hall at Prince Colin’s request.”

Kendall shook her head. “Okay, then how about this: you need a place to stay, food to eat, and clothes to wear. The museum is already struggling as is with the secret science-fantasy laboratory I’m running downstairs, so I can’t justify giving you anything without employing you.” She examined his features, but he still seemed unresponsive. “You do understand ‘money’, yes?”

“Indeed!” he replied with a grin.

“And you understand how much you have?”

“Quite!” he said, and then his grin faltered. “Oh,” he realized.

“Exactly.” Kendall grabbed his hand and led him to the front. “Now, the best way for you to start things off is by getting the customer’s order.” She placed Ivan in front of the till, where a grumpy-looking man was waiting. “Say hello,” she prompted.

“Greetings good sir! I am Sir Iv - urk!” he spouted as Kendall elbowed him.

“You don’t need to introduce yourself,” she said under her breath. “Especially not like that. Just ask him what he wants to eat.”

“What manner of food would you like to feast on this fine midday!” the knight declared.

“Yeah, can I get a Cretaceous Cheeseburger without the cheese?”

Ivan frowned. “Well, that would simply be a Bronto Burger I believe.”

The customer furrowed his brow. “No, if I wanted a Bronto Burger I would have said so. I want a _Cheeseburger_ without the _cheese_.”

“My good sir, I fear we have a misunderstanding. A cheeseburger without cheese is but a burger. A fine, delicious meal, but different nonetheless.”

The customer slammed his fist on the table. “Are you deaf? Or just an idiot?”

Ivan grimaced turned to Kendall for guidance, but she was already facepalming. Why did the first customer Ivan ever served have to be someone like _this_?

“Are you listening to me? Get me a damn cheese-less cheeseburger!” the customer snarled. Ivan turned to glare at him.

“Sir, I must ask you: are you mad?”

“OF COURSE I’M MAD!”

Then Ivan drew his sword and it all went to hell. As Kendall dragged him away from the counter, she bitterly thought about how much easier Tyler’s job had been.


	4. This is a Gym

Ivan felt very bare in what Riley called ‘gym clothes’. Certainly he had seen others around the city wearing as little as he was - or less! - and he had accepted that a combination of societal shift and warm climate was responsible. But standing here in public, clad in mere shortened hose and sleeveless undershirt, Ivan felt dangerously exposed. Yet young Riley stood there without any lack of confidence, and it would be unbecoming of a Knight of Zandar to balk at this task, so Ivan took a breath and looked around the room.

“So, this is...the James?” he asked. He wasn’t sure who James was, but he must have been some kind of mechanist. The people around him had strapped themselves into various contraptions and were pulling levers, pushing pars, and doing all manner of actions. “They seem to be unusually stressed. What are they accomplishing?”

“They’re building muscle,” Riley replied. “And it’s not Jim the name, it’s G-Y-M. As in Gymnasium.”

Ivan nodded with recognition. “Ah, of course, that would explain why everyone is naked. Still, where are the places for sword practice? The bows and arrows? Sacks for football?”

Riley smirked. “There are some places that have those, but this one just focuses on building muscle. Here, I’ll show you.” He led him over to an unoccupied machine. A stack of bricks was tied to one end, with the rope looping over a metal branch and ending in a flat bar. Riley laid down beneath the bar on a padded bench. “This is a bench press. It works out your chest muscles. Riley gave a pull to demonstrate. The bar pulled the bricks up, and as Ivan watched he slowly understood the point of it all.

“Ah! So in this time you focus on a foundation of strength before moving on to more complex fetes? Fascinating. Allow me!”

Ivan practically shoved Riley off of the machine, but Riley figured that it’d be best to get the man used to the machines so that he didn’t hurt himself. That was the _real_ lesson that he was teaching Ivan. The last thing anybody wanted was the knight using a bowflex wrong and strangling himself in the cords. So Riley guided him around the circuit, spotting him as he moved on to heavier weights, marvelling at just how strong he was.

After an hour, though, Ivan began breathing heavily. “This work out is quite the...” he paused for a breath. “Well, a work out.”

“Stay here, I’ll grab us some water,” Riley said as he went to refill their bottles from the water fountain. When he turned back around later, he saw Ivan had moved himself to a different part of the gym.

“Behold sir Riley! I have located the footballs!”

“Ivan no those are - ”

But it was too late. Ivan thrust his foot forward into the medicine ball, and a tremor shook its way up his foot and leg into his head. “Oh,” he muttered before collapsing like a tree. Riley let out a yelp and dashed to his side.

“Those are...also for lifting,” he said as he pulled Ivan to his feet and propped him over his shoulder. What a shame. He almost thought that he had gotten the easy job.


	5. This is a Motorcycle

"Sir Chase, might I ask what everyone is doing here?"

Chase looked where Ivan was pointing and chuckled to himself. "They think that something is going to go horribly wrong and want to laugh at me."

Indeed, the rest of the team had set themselves up on the picnic tables beside the parking lot he has brought Ivan to. Kendall has set up a camcorder, Tyler and Shelby were sharing popcorn, and Riley was sending him yet another text that surely said something along the lines of "Hahaha, you're fucked". But Chase didn't mind. He knew they were just jealous that he got the easy job. Yes, Koda struggled when he was learning how to ride a bike, but he didn't have any baseline experience to compare it to. Ivan did.

"It's like a horse, you say?" he asked as he eyed the Dino Cycle. Chase nodded, and started pointing at all the parts of the vehicle.

"It's simple, really. This is the saddle. These," he pointed to the handlebars "are like the reigns. And this," he pointed to where his foot rested, "is how you make it go." He picked a helmet off the back and tossed it to the knight. "Now remember, it goes much faster than a horse would, which means you should start slow and be careful."

"Bah! In Zandar, I was famed for being the fastest rider in all the kingdom. This motorized cycle is no match for me!" Before Chase could say anything, Ivan tossed his helmet behind him, started the bike, and shot down the length of the parking lot like a bullet. In the distance, the team could hear his cries of excitement as he raced to one side, turned, and began coming back the other.

Chase grinned. "Ha! See? I told you guys it would be a piece of cake." He starting walking towards the ranger as he returned, but had to leap out of the way when Ivan whizzed past him again. As Chase crashed down in front of the others, he couldn't help but notice that they were all giggling. "What are you all smiley about?"

Riley patted Chase on the shoulder. "Honey, you never told him how to brake."

Chase's face fell. "Oh shite."

He scrambled back to his feet and tried to call out to Ivan. "Ivan! Let go of the gas! Take your foot off! Ivan! IVAN!" Ivan, however, could barely hear Chase. When he saw the man cross his path he tried to stop, but being accustomed to horses he thought that pulling on the handlebars would slow him down. This did not work. What it did do was cause the Dino Cycle to pop a wheelie.

Ivan was not prepared for a wheelie.

Suffice to say, Ivan fell backwards off of the bike, Chase leapt sideways again to avoid becoming roadkill, and the bike flew out of the parking lot and wrapped itself around a pole. After recovering, Ivan suggested that it may be a better idea to keep horses at the base instead. Chase almost agreed.


	6. This is Closure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH NO THIS IS THE SAD ONE

After a month, Ivan came to understand what dinosaurs were and could identify most of the ones on the Chargers by silhouette. He could call people on his new phone, text, and even began getting the hang of selfies. He joined Riley for his morning workout and only almost broke the machine once. He didn't go on crusades against rude customers anymore. And he could ride the Dino Bikes without fear of crashing (though to be perfectly honest he preferred his wings).

And yet...

When he began pursuing a place in the court of Zandar, it was with the intent that his family would be provided for. By no means did he bring them riches, but they had food and shelter and land, and his siblings were able to receive education and titles. Ivan himself could have been the father to future nobles, should fate have smiled on him in time. Perhaps with the Earl's daughter that he had been courting for the past year. Gwen, her name was, and she was the moon to his sun - the shield to his blade. She was a perfect match.

She ended up marrying the cousin of the Austrian Duke. His brother wed the youngest daughter of the court treasurer, and their grandchildren eventually married into the English royalty. They laid the foundations of the house Plantagenet, which was apparently a big deal. His younger sister married Prince Colin - apparently to ease the tragedy of Ivan's disappearance - and though Colin never attained the throne of Zandar the two became ancestors of the Renaldi line. All this and more, Wikipedia told him, was the legacy of his family. Kendall thought it might be interesting to him, but all Ivan saw when he looked on it was a gravestone. Did they even still have gravestones? Or had eight hundred years of wind and rain turned them to dust? An entire loving family, chasing glory from Arabia into Europe, reduced to naught but a series of names and dates.

"You lucky," came a quiet voice from his side. Ivan turned and saw Koda standing beside him. Wordlessly the knight moved over on the seat so that Koda could look at the computer. "Your family still exist in computer box."

Ivan sighed. "Do they though? Where in this encyclopedia did it say that my sister Maria always got up early to feed the birds at our window? Or that my brother Carl was an even better swordsman than I was, and surely would have become a knight had he not detested violence? That my mother and father raised me to defend the weak and only serve the strong should they prove the deserved that strength?" He shook his head. "Nay, good sir Koda, this is not my family. It is merely a shadow of them."

Koda nodded. "My family not get shadow. Only exist here." He tapped his head. Then after a moment, he tapped his heart. "And here."

Ivan nodded. Of course, his teammate would suffer from the same melancholy that he did. "You seem so...accepting of it, though. How do you handle the loss?"

Koda thought about the question, searching for the proper words. "Life in my time hard. Many die from tigers and blizzards and..disease. Mothers. Fathers. Children. We know death always watching." Despite the morbid matter, he smiled. "But there is place...no word, just...feeling. Place where family rests when dead."

Ivan smiled softly. "I know of that place. We called it heaven."

Koda nodded. "My family there. My father, who find cave. Mother, who helped us when we where sick. My brothers and sisters, Tagu and Kino and Nana and Roha. They all watch me, and protect me." The caveman placed his hand over Ivan's heart. "Your family there too. They see you. They are happy, and...proud." He patted Ivan's chest. "Sometimes, you feel the, here. Real family. Not shadow."

Ivan choked, surprising Koda, and himself. He took a breath to compose himself, but it didn't work. "I just...I always thought I would be able to say goodbye."

Koda held him close as the sobs came. "It okay. We say goodbye now." And he cried a little too, but that was okay. This would good for Ivan. Riley had called it "closure". Deep down, Koda was glad that he got the closure job. It was the most important one.


End file.
